Friday, July 31, 2009

International relations are governed by what two nations agree upon and state the same jointly. The same is then formalised in form of treaties. But astonishingly, a man who served as an under-secretary at the UN and with much international exposure came up with this ridiculous defense of Manmohan Singh's betrayal of India in Egypt -

[...] MoS for external affairs ShashiTharoor on Thursday downplayed the significance of the controversialIndia-Pakistan joint statement and said it was a "diplomatic paper" and not alegally binding commitment.

[...] "It (the joint statement) is adiplomatic paper that is released to the press different from legal papers,"[Link]

If that's the logic, how can Singh claim victory at Pakistan's mere admission of it's involvement in Mumbai attacks. It could very well amount to nothing since it's not legally binding.

And that's exactly how the Indo-US Nuclear deal too is playing out. The deal that was eventually sold to us ordinary folks was far from what the joint statement of 2004 mentioned.

This doesn't reflect well on a whole lot of things. Tharoor himself, the Congress's intentions, the UN and the general functioning of bodies like the UN. If this is the thought, then the UN and similar bodies are completely ineffective (not that they have been for long).

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Prime Minister of the Union of India is oath-bound to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of the nation. And also to faithfully discharge his duties towards all manner of people in accordance to the Constitution and the law without fear or favour, affection or ill will.

Now India is no stranger to terrorism. Terrorists have been ripping us apart for decades and thousands of innocent lives have been lost under jihadi attacks. These only increased in intensity and frequency in the last few years. Bomb blasts became a routine and the people, appalled at our leaders' inaction, accepted it as a fact of life. Then 26/11 happened. This attack on Mumbai was no routine bomb blast. But we had professionally trained fidayeen attackers wrecking havoc in India's commercial capital. They held the city hostage for over 60 hours and by the time they were neutralised over 300 innocent lives had been lost. Landmark buildings were in flames, many lives were disrupted. People were enraged at this assault on their lives and the PM addressed the nation. Condemnations and promises were a part of it -

The dastardly terror attacks that tookplace in Mumbai lastnight and today leading to the loss of many precious lives and injuries to manyothers have deeply shocked the nation. I strongly condemn these acts ofsenseless violence against innocent people, including guests from foreigncountries. I offer my deepest condolences to the bereaved families andsympathies to those injured. The Government will take all necessary measures tolook after the wellbeing of the affected families, including medicaltreatment of injured.

[...] We are not prepared to countenancea situation in which the safety and security of our citizens can be violatedwith impunity by terrorists.

[...] We will take the strongest possiblemeasures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts. We aredetermined to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the safety andsecurity of our citizens.

[...] We will take up stronglywith our neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on uswill not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures arenot taken by them. [Link] (Emphasis added)

In the seven months since then, all we saw was a bunch of files exchanged between us and Pakistan. Leave inflicting costs on our neighbour aside, even diplomatic measures weren't forthcoming. When Singh and Gilani met in Egypt last week, this resulted -

Both Prime Ministers recognized thatdialogue is the only way forward. Action on terrorism should not be linked tothe Composite Dialogue process and these should not be bracketed. Prime MinisterSingh said that India was ready to discuss all issues with Pakistan, includingall outstanding issues. [Link] (Emphasis added)

We had Singh assuring the nation, all the while, no dialogue would take place unless Pakistan acted credibly on ending terrorism. And now we have the same Singh agreeing to de-link terrorism from discussions with Pakistan. It gets even worse -

Prime Minister Gilani mentioned thatPakistan has some information on threats in Balochistan and other areas. [Link]

Balochistan featured in the joint statement. When it is India that is among the worst affected by terrorism in the world and clearly was the victim in the Mumbai attacks, thanks to Singh, Pakistan manages to paint itself as a victim. It was Singh's responsibility to ensure keeping pressure and onus on Pakistan. But what really happened, in his presence, was that both the nations came out as equally aggrieved parties. It is astonishing that images of destruction and innocent blood did not come to Singh's mind when he met Gilani and issued the joint statement in Egypt. And this is the same person who is known to have lost sleep on at least one other occasion. So much for guarding India's interests. Singh's attempt of passing the buck and seeking refuge under "bad drafting" is juvenile to say the least. It lends all the more credence to the fact that he was not being diligent in Egypt.

Singh, being the PM, ought to realise the responsibilities of his position and the potential implications of his actions on nation. He has demonstrated an inability to do so on multiple occasions. This particular joint statement has graveimplications. Singh's judgement is a suspect. Until he proves otherwise, it must be concluded that Singh is incapable of keeping our national interest above all else.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Typical of the Islamists to not feel at home where Islam is under the scanner. It seems, assimilation is something they do not believe in. Every place they seek to inhibit must be turned to a Dar-Ul-Islam and no effort is spared until that is achieved. Apparently, tolerance, respect, understanding and accommodation in general only applies to the kafirs for the Islamists are the chosen ones by their Allah.

Geert Wilders' (see previous posts here and here) efforts at bringing forth the reality of Islam and its crusaders is bearing fruit in Europe. His party - Party for Freedom - is fast becoming popular. Recent opinion polls suggest his will be the largest party if polls were held now. And this growing popularity of an "anti-Islamist" is making the Muslims there queasy. They were quite happy so long as dhimmis apologised for them and Sharia courts were being allowed to function. After all, how can a devout Muslim stand anything that questions Islam?

Findings from the recent surveys of Dutch Muslims -

· More than a third of allMoroccan-Dutch or Turkish-Dutch say they want to leave the country because of Wilders' growingpopularity, according to a Motivaction poll commisisoned by the current affairs programme Netwerk.· Morethan half (51 percent) say they are thinking more and more about emigrating.· Three-quarters say they still feel at home in the Netherlands, but amajority (56 percent) say they fell less at home because of the rise of Wilders' anti-Islam Partyfor Freedom (PVV).

· The PVV won 16.9 percent ofthe vote in the June 2009 European election, making it the second biggest partyin the Netherlands [Link]

There's a reason conservative parties are winning seats and are on the rise in Europe (British National Party in the UK, Freedom Party in Austria). Back home, our political leaders bitten by the "secularism" bug would do well to understand this.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

For all his verbal jugglery, funny man, Laloo really has nothing much to show for his performance. We now learn his much praised tenure as the rail minister was nothing but a fraud. Much like all of the UPA's "social justice" policies, Laloo's claim of having earned crores in profits for the railways is a sham. Here's what Mamta said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday -

“Some people have spoken about a profit of Rs 90,000 crore.But one can just not talk about the income and skip the expenditure part. Afterspending Rs 28,200 crore on account of the Sixth Pay Commission award for twoyears, we are left with a cash surplus of just Rs 8,361 crore. This balance isafter taking the entire last five years into account,” Mamata Banerjee revealedwhile replaying to the debate on Railway Budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha onThursday. [Link]

Here's a summary -

What Mamata exposedOne cannot just talk about incomeand skip expenditure partAfter spending Rs 28,200 crore on account of theSixth Pay Commission for two years, we are left with a cash surplus of just Rs8,361 crore against much-hyped Lalu claim of Rs 90,000 cr of profitThisbalance is after taking the last five years into accountWe are not here tobuild up balances of the Ministry but to create infrastructureMinisters maycome and go but the institution remainsWe want a railway that is foreveryone and not for someone specialReiterates her commitment to come outwith a white paper [Link]

Strangely, when faced with this damning revelation, he didn't seem to have much to say except put up a funny face.

A shell-shocked Lalu Prasad was leftspeechless as Mamata seemed well-prepared and armed with every fact and figureto supplement her claims. Lalu remained a mute spectator as the Bengal tigresswent on demolishing the myth he had created in all these years. “We are not hereto build up balances of the Ministry but to create infrastructure. Ministers maycome and go, but the institution remains. We want a Railway that is for everyoneand not for someone special,” Mamata said. [Link]

Yeah, and all this right under the nose of an "honest liberal economist".